“KIEV, Ukraine — At least 35 people died in the bloodiest day of clashes here yet Thursday morning, as armed protesters shattered a truce agreed last night between Ukraine’s government and opposition by attacking police and reclaiming Kiev’s central square.” [BuzzFeed]

“President Barack Obama condemned Wednesday in the ‘strongest terms’ a bloody crackdown on protesters that spiraled out of control into the worst violence the country has seen since its independence from Russia in 1991.” [TIME]

“The two sides in what is developing into an East-West clash over Ukraine hardened their positions on Wednesday, with Russian officials denouncing what they called a coup by right-wing extremists, even as the United States and Europe threatened to impose sanctions on those responsible for the violence that has erupted in the capital, Kiev, and spread to other cities.” [NYT]

“The government is considering enlarging the National Security Agency’s controversial collection of Americans’ phone records—an unintended consequence of lawsuits seeking to stop the surveillance program…” [WSJ]

“House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp appears determined to take one last stab at making good on his promise to pass an overhaul of the nation’s tax code by the end of the 113th Congress. On Wednesday, the Michigan Republican told GOP members of the committee that he would, next week, release a “comprehensive discussion draft” of a tax code rewrite…” [Roll Call]

Uh oh...."Volkswagen’s top labor representative threatened on Wednesday to try to block further investments by the German carmaker in the southern United States if its workers there are not unionized...German workers enjoy considerable influence over company decisions under the legally enshrined “co-determination” principle. "

So after Republican Rep. Corker told us that VW would never build another plant in the south IF the first one was unionized, it turns out that the company most likely won't build another plant in the south specifically BECAUSE the first one WASN'T unionized.

Stephen Harper uses a ludicrous concept of an "average" Canadian family to explain the benefits of Harper's policies in tax savings. Worse, they got a 20% increase in salary since 2012 when he started the annual process of talking about an "average" Canadian Family.

1) I was incorrect in my numbers earlier. This brings Canada up to 4 golds and one silver - the silver was in '98 in Nagano, the first year that Women's Hockey was an Olympic Event. Canada has been undefeated in the Olympics since

2) Canadian Defenseman Meaghan Mikkelson had a broken hand but still got dressed and played a full 21:44 for Team Canada

3) Hayley Wickenheiser and Jayna Hefford are now the most decorated Olympians in Hockey in terms of medal totals surpassing Russian goalie Vladislav Tretiak , Finnish Saku Koivu and former teammate Jennifer Botterill. Neither are expected to have another Olympics in them but it is possible as they're only 35 and 36 respectively.

Have you heard about the hot new trend that is sweeping the
Republican Party? No, not “endorsing a celebrity’s confused defense of
Jim Crow,” I am talking about “caring about poverty.” Marco Rubio cares. Paul Ryan cares. Rand Paul cares. Even Eric Cantor cares. Now, it can be revealed that Sen. Mike Lee also secretly cares very deeply about the plight of the poor.

“Tackling
poverty may seem a counterintuitive agenda for one of the most
conservative figures in Congress,” the Guardian says, but we have seen
many examples over the last few months of how easily a far-right figure
can earn positive press simply by stating that it is bad that some
people are very poor and that something should be done about that.
(Though to be fair to the press, it is actually pretty unusual to hear
any politician admit that many Americans are very poor, and the last
prominent politician to campaign on a platform of doing something about
it turned out to be a toxic narcissist.)

Lee, best known for being a less telegenic
Ted Cruz, declared a “war on poverty” last November. Unlike the prior
War on Poverty, which was made up of various policies designed to
alleviate poverty (and which was much more successful
than its critics have claimed), Lee’s war on poverty is mainly about
making the rhetorical case that government causes poverty and that
eliminating welfare benefits for the poor will somehow spur “market
forces” to solve the problem.

“[A] bill, introduced last week, that would restore a work requirement for recipients of food stamps….”

“capping means-tested welfare spending at 2007 levels”

Capping spending on benefits at 2007 levels — that is, capping them where they were just before the devastating economic crisis and subsequent worldwide recession
— seems, like so much of the modern GOP “anti-poverty” platform, to be
more of a cruel joke than a serious suggestion. The right now rejects
the idea that spending on benefits ought to increase when need
increases, in favor of believing, because they really want to believe,
that need increases because spending increases. Keep in mind too that
“means-tested welfare spending” includes a wide array of programs beyond
TANF and SNAP — scroll down to Sec. 301 here — and capping spending at 2007 levels would effectively reverse the ACA Medicaid expansion.

(The
Guardian, to its credit and unlike certain American press outlets
reporting on GOP poverty crusading, does quote experts explaining how
Lee’s ideas will not actually help any poor people.)

At least Marco Rubio suggested a program that might actually alleviate poverty.
(Though in order for it to do so, it would have to spend money. And
that is why Marco Rubio is a huge failure at being a modern conservative
superstar.) The Pauls and Lees simply argue that their goal of
completely dismantling the welfare state is in fact an anti-poverty
platform, because the government giving poor people money and vouchers
is the only thing standing in the way of the poor lifting themselves
from poverty with the assistance of the benevolent market.

When a Republican announces his war on poverty, impoverished people should understand that they are the ones the war is against.

The 2012 campaign cycle was “the greatest windfall” for political operatives in American history, Democratic consultant Hank Sheinkopf has said—a $6 billion spending frenzy unmatched in U.S. politics. [i]

So who pocketed all that cash? Most of it went for ads on TV, radio and the Internet, of course; media buys are the biggest expense in any election. But Kantar Media’s Campaign Media Analysis Group, which tracks broadcast spending, puts the 2012 total for all media at roughly $5 billion, which left another one billion at the disposal of the “campaign industrial complex”—that standing army of consultants, pollsters, mailers, data gurus and field organizers.

New York Police Department officials say they can't explain why a fearful woman's domestic-abuse report -- written in the woman's native language of Spanish -- was never translated into English for review, and for possible action.

The woman and her two daughters subsequently were stabbed to death. The woman's husband, arrested as he tried to flee to Mexico, now faces charges of first-degree murder.

And a group that has a lawsuit pending against the city on behalf of six other Latina women says the case of Deisy Garcia and her young daughters is far from unique in New York.

The paper trail that ends with the January deaths of Garcia and daughters Daniela, 2, and Yoselin, 1, stretches back to last May.

On May 30, Garcia filed a police report saying she feared her husband would kill her and their two daughters. Garcia spoke Spanish, and it was in Spanish that she filed the report. According to the NYPD, that report was never translated into English for further review.

On January 18, according to authorities, Garcia and her daughters were stabbed to death in their Queens apartment, allegedly by Garcia's ex-husband and the girls' father, Miguel Mejia-Ramos.

Police say officers at the murder scene filed their own report, but the department has no explanation for what happened to Garcia's report from months earlier or to another report from Garcia, again written in Spanish, after a November incident.

"I knew about the police report, and I knew about the police showing up at the house previously on one of the times where Deisy had called the police because she had been the victim of domestic violence," says Roger Asmar, an attorney hired by Garcia's family. "But we did not know that every time Deisy filled out a report -- every time she went to the precinct or the cops came to the house -- no one actually translated the text into English, so, apparently no one looked into it.

@barneydidit We call that winger short term thinking. They win a battle and lose a war, seeing as VW isn't the only German car company with plants down South, and their Union reps aren't going to be any more eager to see people they view as Union busters get any more business.

@mantisdragon91 The GOP War on Poverty is actually war on people for not being millionaires like the senators starting the war. Maybe it is time to name the depression officially as the "GOP President George W Bush Depression".

@TerryClifton02@barneydiditYou seem to forget that it wasn't the unions that tampered in the vote, and lied about the outcome but GOP politicians like Bob Corker. When you attempt to stack the deck to get your desired result, why would you be surprised when you get push back from the people who feel cheated?

REPORT: Network News Ignoring Toxic Coal Ash Spill In North Carolina
A massive spill of toxic coal ash in a North Carolina river on
February 2 has been entirely ignored by ABC, CBS and NBC. The spill has
led to a federal investigation and allegations that the state's Governor
-- who worked for the corporation behind the spill and has received
substantial campaign donations from it -- has been too lenient on the
company, which was discovered to have spilled coal ash into the river
again on February 18

Union membership are at all time lows, and they are desperate to penetrate car manufacturer's outside the Big 3. Also states and localities are rising up against the public unions as well, because they simply can't afford them anymore. California has a 500 billion dollar shortfall in union retirement payouts. One retired sheriff from Ventura County is collecting a whopping $276,000 per year in retirement benefits, and yet, he is suing for another $75,000.00 per year, because he feels like he deserves it. In California alone, over 20,000 California retirees are collecting over $100,000 per year in retirement pay.

The unions simply wants the employees to pony up their hard earned money to fund the unions future endeavors such as buying off local and state officials with campaign money. This is how it's worked since the beginning. However, the states and localities can no longer afford to keep up the madness, and the citizens are now wise to the scam. If this type of extortion was played out between two private citizens, someone would be going to jail, under the RICO Act..That's why for decades the mob has ran the unions..It's where the money is, and no one has to sleep with the fishes, lol..

@mantisdragon91@TyPollard@MementoMori NPR reported that about 70 miles of the bottom of the Dan River are covered with poisonous coal ash (that "clean coal" seems to be full of heavy metals). Residents told to avoid the river and not to eat any fish from there.